Tesla Beats BMW As Top Luxury Brand; Scores Second in Brand Recognition

Tesla scores second for brand sustainability perceptions

Kelley Blue Book

Tesla ranks second as the brand with the highest sustainability perception. Brand Finance, an independent branding and consultation agency, released the Sustainability Perceptions Index, which uses several factors to determine the "value of sustainability perceptions to the world's leading brands."

It's hard to imagine a more sustainable brand than Tesla. The mission statement includes the verbiage: accelerate the world's transition to sustainable energy. This company made electric vehicles a viable form of transportation and has produced more energy than it used. But it may be Tesla's communication or lack thereof, that cost it first place.

Tesla May be too Humble

The report states, "Despite having sustainability as central to its brand, Tesla's communication of its sustainability initiatives is relatively limited considering the impact that it has. This is potentially due to a worry that the brand is too defined by sustainability. However, Brand Finance's research suggests that this worry is unwarranted, and in fact, having a strong sustainability perception will only increase consumer choice, particularly in the luxury auto sector."

To confuse readers further, Brand Finance gave the top ranking to Amazon. The report ironically states: "This may come as a surprise to some." Brand Finance explains that despite the "regular criticism about issues as diverse as labor conditions, emissions associated with its supply chains, and the polluting effects of packaging," there is a perception of sustainability. The report reads, "Regardless of Amazon's track record, it is clear that consumers worldwide have confidence that Amazon is minimizing its negative impacts, or at least is committed enough for them to continue to use its services."

Luxury Car Brands Must be Environmentally Friendly

Tesla recently ousted BMW as the top-selling luxury brand. Brand Finance's report found that consumers are putting a lot of importance on sustainability in luxury automobiles. Volvo discovered the same trend when it announced that it would phase out the production of ICE vehicles. Volvo worked with The Future Laboratory to author a report called The Rise of the Conscious Design.

The report underscored the importance of Volvo, and effectively the entire auto industry, to be more sustainable. The report pointed out, "Once focused specifically on environmental factors, consumers are rapidly developing a more holistic understanding of sustainability and ethics… The rise of conscious design stems from a pressing need to ensure that future products across categories are ethical, sustainable and regenerative."

Tesla Should Advertise

Tesla has not spent a dime on traditional advertising; instead, it relies on word-of-mouth and puts so much faith in its product that it made owners practically spokespeople. Although Tesla appears to have done some product placement in the past, such as the Model Y that was offered on the Price is Right. However, more advertising may be necessary now that the rest of the automotive world has realized electric vehicles are here to stay and consumers are demanding the product.

The average consumer must learn about Tesla's incredible safety record and cutting-edge technology. You can bet every other brand will be buying ads to promote "new features" that Tesla has already done or is significantly more advanced than the competition. There is no reason why Tesla shouldn't be the top brand globally for sustainability other than an uninformed perception, and that must change.

Musk Teases New Model for Early 2025 That Will Use a Mix of Next-Gen and Current Platforms

“We have updated our future vehicle line-up to accelerate the launch of new models ahead of our previously communicated start of production in the second half of 2025”. This was one of the key sentences that were part of Tesla’s deck shared on Tuesday directly before its financial results.

Since Reuters’ report a few weeks ago saying Tesla had “scrapped” the highly expected cheaper model— which Elon quickly denied on X —retail and institutional shareholders started asking for more details on Tesla’s product roadmap for 2024 and beyond.

In the earnings conference call, Elon Musk reiterated that Tesla expects to launch the next model in “early 2025, if not late this year”.

“We've updated our future vehicle lineup to accelerate the launch of new models ahead of previously mentioned start of production in the second half of 2025. So, we expect it to be more like the early 2025, if not late this year. “

Over concerns of temporary production halts to update the factories for these new models, Musk said that Tesla will produce new models with certain aspects from their next-generation platform and current models. This will reduce the number of changes needed on production lines and allow Tesla not only to ramp up production faster but also to get the vehicles to market quicker.

Model Y Redesign

Tesla appears to hit that their next-gen vehicle will be less “next-gen” than they were initially aiming for, but to get a new vehicle out the door by late 2024, the process would already have to be in motion. Tesla may likely be referring to the redesigned Model Y, which is expected to reuse many parts from the new Model 3. Earlier this year, Tesla said that the redesigned Model Y will not be released this year, so it makes sense that they’re looking to speed up that production.

Tesla CEO concluded by saying that these measures will allow Tesla to reach a capacity of over 3 million units. Tesla produced 1.84 million vehicles in 2023. However, this year they’re ramping up Cybertruck production and introduced the new Model 3 into new markets.

And we think this should allow us to get to over 3 million vehicles of capacity when realized to the full extent.

Tesla reported on Tuesday its earnings results followed by a conference call where it teased its upcoming Robotaxi and its next-generation platform saying its “purpose-built Robotaxi product will continue to pursue a revolutionary ‘unboxed’ manufacturing strategy”.

Earlier in the day, Tesla announced the new Performance variant of its sedan Model 3 with deliveries in the United States starting already next month. The new version starts at $45,490 (after applying the $7,500 Federal EV tax credit) and goes from 0 to 60mph in 2.9 seconds.

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Tesla on FSD: Close to License Deal With Major Automaker, Announces Miles Driven on FSD v12

On Tuesday Tesla reported its earnings results followed by a conference call that brought several updates on the company’s roadmap for future vehicles, autonomous driving, Optimus and much more.

While answering a question from Goldman Sachs analyst Mark Delaney about updates on the licensing of Tesla’s Full Self-Driving (FSD) technology, Elon Musk said they’re talking to one major auto manufacturer and there’s “a good chance” the company signs the first deal before year-end. However, he went on to say that it would probably be three years before the necessary changes are integrated into the car.

I think we have a good chance we do sign a deal this year

Brings Benefits to Tesla

The technology would require other automakers to start using the same cameras and hardware as Tesla, meaning that Tesla may not only generate money from licensing FSD but also from selling the hardware itself. However, there would be other benefits as well. When licensing FSD, Tesla would likely own the data gathered with the system well, further helping them with data and edge cases that need to be solved to reach full autonomy.

people don't understand all cars will need to be smart cars… Once that becomes obvious, I think licensing becomes not optional.

Tesla’s Chief Financial Officer Vaibhav Taneja commented pointing out that future partners “take a lot of time in their product life cycle” resulting in a gap between the deal signing and the arrival in the market of Tesla’s FSD software.

Miles Driven With FSD

On the conference call, Musk added that Tesla now has over 300 million miles that have been driven with FSD v12 since it was launched just last month. He added that it's becoming “very clear that the vision-based approach with end-to-end neural networks is the right solution for scalable autonomy”.

Tesla said it will continue to increase its “core AI infrastructure capacity in the coming months” adding that in the first quarter, it completed the transition to hardware 4.0 with China now receiving the upgraded FSD computer and cameras.

Over the weekend, Tesla reduced the price of FSD dropping it from $12,000 to $8,000 for customers in the United States and from CA$16,000 to CA$11,000 in Canada.

Earlier this month, Tesla implemented a 50% price reduction for FSD subscriptions in the U.S. and introduced the subscription model in Canada at a great value of CA$99 per month.

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